My average income has been $2.50 per hour if I was to compensate myself in full for all the difficult hours I end up putting in my own business. This is another reason why I decided to work for a company that has been rated in the top 100 companies to work for the last two years that I know of.

Hey, we all work hard and still live on the edge. Perhaps this is why I have been frustrated with an economic system that should work well and it often does not for reasons of greed and envious competition. When you see two BP gas stations (sometimes three) on the same intersection there is something wrong. No? Perhaps "some!" (naming no one in particular here)(communists) believe competition is good when the managers working for the same company actually try and beat each others sales records daily! Strange!

I liked the United States that I first moved to live in back in 1982. I liked it because there were many small businesses. Now there are super wall marts and super one thing or another. The fun of shopping is gone mostly because the small business has to charge high prices where as I was able to bargain when I shopped and accept bargain counter offers on the prices of my frames. All this is what makes shopping enjoyable. No? I am now practically out of business because I have had to offer wholesale clients to set their own prices after having disclosed the cost to them; and then when the wholesale clients sells the frame at a price I take out the cost and divide the remainder (gross profit) 50% 50%. Sometimes the sale price is so low that we both lose money for having bin in this business. The art and frame market is so saturated because many super stores are in the business and they often go in to the framing business as a lost leader product so that they can get clients in their stores who otherwise would have walked or driven to three to five or more stores to obtain the things they needed or wanted. Convenience is good for Gas stations where you do not have to cross the street to get gas but not for the framing business, where as a small business, it offered higher quality of service and workmanship reasonable prices. Now the frames are mostly Brazilian lumber soft and almost hollow (named Banack) that dose not cut and join well and the finishes are on Gesso material that is piled on so thick that if the wood warps it cracks and falls off. Some frames are even plastic these actually sag on the walls after a couple of weeks.

For most of the above-described experiences I like it when our government is lead by republicans. The republicanís policies of less government control (or smaller government without losing the strength of governance) and more privatization, more often than not, somehow, promotes small business. This has been my observation.